Newport News mother rips Jackson for comments on children born with disabilities

Michael Welles Shapiro, mwshapiro@dailypress.com | 757-247-4744

Two Hampton Roads families with children with birth defects criticized a passage written by Chesapeake minister and candidate for lieutenant governor E.W. Jackson in his book.

In his book, Ten Commandments to an Extraordinary Life, Jackson, the GOP nominee, wrote "It is the priciple of sin, rebellion against God and His truth which has brought about birth defects and other destructive natural occurrences."

Dorothea Hampton of Newport News and Neil Thomas and Sarelle Holliday of Norfolk on Monday sent a joint letter to Jackson and called for an apology.

"As parents of children born with disabilities, it is offensive and disturbing to imply that our children are somehow a punishment. As someone seeking to serve in public office you owe an apology for this baseless mischaracterization of Virginia children to thousands of families across the Commonwealth," their letter reads.

In June, about a month after winning the Republican Party's nominee at a convention, Jackson held a news conference to address past tax liens, bankruptcy and controversial comments he's made. At the time he sought to clarify the birth-defect passage, saying that in most cases he doesn't believe in the connection between birth defects and the sin of the parents, “unless, of course, there’s a direct scientific connection between the parents’ behavior and the disabilities of the child.”

According to a Richmond Times-Dispatch article, he offered as way of example the "birth defects that might result from a child born to a mother addicted to heroin."

The children in the Hampton Roads families have been patients at the pediatric neurology practice of Jackson's opponent State Sen. Ralph Northam, D-Norfolk, according to a Democratic Party spokeswoman.